New Processors Jump into PDA CPU Fray

Hitachi, Motorola, Toshiba, and others take on Hobbit and ARM

Hitachi America is leaping into the personal digital assistant (PDA) processor fray with a new family of 32-bit RISC CPUs called the “SH7000” which will go head-to-head with the likes of Advanced RISC Machines’ ARM (used in Apple’s Newton) and AT&T’s Hobbit (used in EO’s 440). A major difference between the SH7000 and these more established processors, however, is that the ARM 610 and Hobbit were originally designed for desktop applications, while the SH family is designed specifically to meet the needs of the handheld, consumer-electronics market.

The SH family includes the SH7032 with 8 Kbytes of on-chip RAM, and the SH7034 with 64 Kbytes of ROM and 4 Kbytes of RAM. Two versions of the SH controllers are available: a 20-MHz chip requiring 5-volts of power, and a 12.5-MHz chip requiring 3.3-V. The SH device has under 40,000 transistors, making it (Hitachi claims) the smallest 32-bit core available.

In spite of its low-cost, the low-power SH7000 controller has built-in digital signal processing (for voice or pen input), an A/D converter, high-speed DMA, a dynamic RAM controller, a two-channel serial communications interface, and an integrated timing-pulse unit.

Hitachi plans additions to the SH family with three or four other members to be shipped in 1994, among them one version with on-chip flash and another with an ASIC core. In 25,000 quantity, the SH7032 is sampling at $33 each while the SH7034 is selling at $41.

Other RISC Processor Players

Hitachi isn’t along in jumping into the PDA RISC processor market. Both Toshiba and Motorola have announced PDA RISC plans, too. The Toshiba V810 is another 5-V RISC CPU close to the SH in speed, although it can supposedly operate at 2.2 V. The V810’s floating-point code capabilities may make it more attractive for some applications.

It’s also reported that Motorola will soon begin sampling low-cost, low-power versions of its RISC PowerPC processor, targeting the embedded systems and PDA markets. Motorola will reportedly ship the PowerPC 603, designed for mobile computing devices, in 1994. Motorola is also rumored to be planning its own PDA which will presumably use some member of the PowerPC family.

Motorola Dragon Chip

While much attention is focused on high performance RISC processors for the mobile computing market, low cost conventional processors are still big players in the emerging market for handheld “personal intelligent communicators” (PICs). Motorola’s first product in this arena will use a new processor code-named “Dragon” which is based on the 68030 architecture. Called the 68349, the chip only draws 300 milliwatts and has an integrated serial port as well as power management functions. Motorola’s Dragon-based PIC will run General Magic’s Magic Cap communications software and is expected to be announced later this year. The Dragon chip is priced at about $28.

Intel Converts 486 Line to Low Power

A related development that may have a significant impact on the PDA/pen processor market is Intel’s announcement as we go to press that its entire 486 processor family is now available in low led power versions. The so-called SL Enhanced Intel486 microprocessor family offers on-board power management and “sleep mode” as well as 3.3 Volt versions of all 486 processors, including a new 40 MHz version of 486 DX2.

The immediate impact of Intel’s announcement will be visible at Fall Comdex, when, according to an Intel spokesman, a host of full color DX2 notebook systems will be on display from a variety of manufacturers. Clearly, manufacturers of pen systems will offer models using the high performance 486 low power processors in the coming months.

But these chips will suffer one major drawback in the low priced PDA market, and that is cost. While the chips mentioned earlier in this article cost from $25 to $50, the low power 486 chips range from $300 to about $500 in 1000-piece quantities, putting them out of the league of low-cost PDAs.